Fooding With Flo: Biscotti

This weekend I was planning on doing a bunch of bloggy related activities so I would have something to tell you about this week. Between laundry and laying around and grocery shopping I did one bloggy thing.

I was going to tackle marshmallows, bread, and biscotti. But, after our larger than normal grocery run (which happens about once every 1.5-2 months) I didn’t have any more extra money for the mallow ingredients and then I just plain ran out of energy for the bread.

And we finally have PANS! Real pans that don’t come from Safeway plus a cooling rack! (Thanks to Maris’s mom and our wedding registry.) When we opened them up we were jumping around the living room singing, “we have nice things we have nice things!” and Kamel kept declaring, “Throw out the old ones! Throw them away!” But we didn’t… because why chuck good pans? Anyway…

This recipe is something my dad’s been making for years over the holidays. He usually makes two batches, some with cranberries and white chocolate and some with whole almonds. I couldn’t find whole almonds, so I used almond slices. This ended up being a good thing and made the biscotti’s natural crunchiness easier to eat.

The recipe also calls for almond extract, which I also didn’t have or want to buy, so I used vanilla and doubled the amount used (from 1/2 tsp to a full tsp). It worked really well, and wasn’t too much or too little.

This is also the messiest I’ve ever been while baking. There’s a lot of taking things in and out of the oven, a lot of stickiness, a lot of flour going willnilly. It kind of delighted me. It made Kamel refuse hugs and tell me he was going to buy me an apron. Bring on the kitchen messes!

This time, we did something a little different and we made a short film about the biscotti. We’ll be bringing you short films (different from the random cell phone video) more often because we love making them and they are fun. Which tells me you’re probably going to like them too! So check it out below and I’ll see you on the other side:

Yes, I realize that I’m not supposed to eat raw eggs, and yes I realize that you’re not supposed to use a knife on a stainless steel counter because it will dull your knife, but what are you gonna do? (Use a cutting board, duh.) Also! That’s the awesome brush that Sarah got us so I don’t have to use my fingers anymore to spread egg whites. YAY! And yes, these cookie take a lot of time. A lot of patience. But they turn out amazing!

If you’d like to give it a go, email me at betterinrealife at gmail.com and I’ll send it your way! But only if you promise to tell me how it goes. I love me a good follow up. Happy Baking!

Yummmm!! Biscotti is fab dipped in coffee and hot chocolate too! I LOOOVE the video and that you guys are planning on throwing in more from now on. Its like getting a Duprez fix in between visits! 🙂 Oh AND im also loving Kamels cute hair cut and goatee-y thing hes got going on. He totally rocks it!

Ohhh those look delicious can’t wait to go home so I can see your video !
And I will definitely want to try. Going to email you soon then 🙂
Love baking.
PS the boy also refuses hugs when I am full of flour…. 🙁

I would like to try to convince you to go ahead and buy the almond extract – and then put it in everything. It is my “secret” ingredient. Basically any recipe that calls for vanilla can also use about 1/2 a teaspoon of almond extract. It adds a bit of amaretto flavor to baked goods, and people say things like, “these cookies are so good! What’s your secret?” and then you just smile…

To my daughter, the baker. I am so proud of you. I even saw my book that I made for you in our pictures which did my heart good. I know that the family recipes will be handed down to the next generation. I now feel like there is serious competition for baking. I love what you did and the cookies looked fabulous. I could smell the vanilla and almonds from here. Love you tons. DB

A couple of Kamel-related things: a) Did he just say “gross” re: raw dough?? C’mon, it’s SO good!! AND. There’s raw egg yolk in homemade mayo and some homemade salad dressings as well . . . but dough just gets a bad rap because of the butter and the sugar and the DELICIOUSNESS. So. Totally with L-dawg on this one. Also, 2) sad about the scruff, I thought you were doing some fun ‘stache for Movember!